Simple Ways to Learn with Stickers

Stickers are a universal item that almost all children enjoy and can be used in so many ways. They can be used as a special treat inside a plastic container or party bag, a travel activity, a doctor’s visit or even on goal charts. But, did you know that stickers also can be used as an educational tool for your child? Here are a few simple (and fun!) ways you can help your child learn with stickers during your lessons at home!

First, let’s review the key skills that can be developed with stickers:

Fine motor skills

Sorting Skills

Visual Discrimination

Counting skills

One to One correspondence

Language Development

Sorting and Classifying

Writing Skills

Phonemic Awareness

As your child gets older, stickers can even be used for beginning reading and writing skills.

Make a Story

Grab a sticker packet and see what stories your child can create from it. For many children,it’s hard to come up with both images and the story line to write the words to a story. Using stickers and writing prompts are a fun way to get the process moving and encourage hesitant writers and illustrators.

To start grab a few sheets of paper and let’s start to write. Encourage your child to select stickers from a page to create their own story. While they are choosing them, discuss the beginning, middle and end of the story. Discuss what type of problem might happen in the story. Look how stickers can help your children learn about story elements at the basic level.

Once your child has placed all the stickers in the book it’s time to start writing. If they are a beginning writer you can encourage them to just label the images with sounds they hear. If they are ready to write, encourage them to talk about the story to form a sentence. After they’ve decided on a sentence, encourage them to sound out the words as they write them down on the paper. At first just allow them to write the sounds that they hear; you can work on spelling correctly as they become a more confident writer.

What are your favorite ways to learn with stickers at home? Leave your ideas in the comments below, or join the conversation on Facebook.

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Kim Vij is the co-author of The Educators’ Spin On It. As an early childhood teacher and a mom of three, she’s learned many tips and tricks of parenting and teaching along the way in the past 20 years. She shares her “Educator’s Spin” on parenting issues and how to make learning playful and playtime meaningful.

Find Kim on Pinterest, Facebook and Google+ where’s she’s sharing hand selected resources so parents & teachers can spend less time searching and more time with their family.

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